Doncaster boy, 15, missing in Portugal for 20 months is reunited with mum back in UK

Jayden Pearson had not been seen by his heartbroken mum Rebecca and brother Matthew since his estranged dad Andrew failed to return from a trip to the Algarve with him in August 2022.

While Rebecca is unable to go into exact details of Jayden’s return, she has confirmed that she has been reunited with him back in the UK.

She said: “He was reunited with his family and friends after 20 months last week – we are all relieved to see him, we thought we would never see Jayden again.

"Thank you everyone for their support.”

Rebecca says she travelled out to Portugal to collect Jayden after he fell ill with an unspecified illness.

On his 14th birthday last year, she made an emotional appeal, describing his birthday as ‘the hardest day.’

In a heartbreaking social media post, she wrote: “Today is one of the hardest days, you should be here celebrating your 14th birthday with your family and friends.

“I miss you so much, there's cards and gifts here for you Jay from everyone who loves and cares about you.

“We will still continue to decorate the home with banners and balloons for you and celebrate with your favourite take away Chinese.

“Happy 14th Birthday to my eldest boy Jayden, we love and miss you so much.

“You may not be here celebrating like we always do, we will continue to celebrate your special day a day that should never feel so hard and sad, you should be here waking up so early on purpose to open all your cards and gifts.

“You’re never forgotten, you are loved so much.”

Last year, Rebecca admitted fearing she would never see Jayden again after his dad failed to show up with the teenager on his late-night return flight to Britain before he blocked the mother-of-two and her family from calling him.

She reported her son missing to police in the UK and Portugal and travelled overseas to search for him.

Rebecca, an NHS healthcare assistant, said: 'He went on holiday, and I had no reason to think he would not come home. I felt I could trust the man who had my children.

'Every day I think, "Will I ever see my eldest boy again?" I just want him home where he belongs.”

Rebecca said Andrew jetted off with Jayden for the ten-day break to the city of Lagos, on Portugal's southern tip, in August 2022.

She said she had retained custody of Jayden and his brother, Mathew, 13, since 2019 after her relationship broke down with Andrew.

However, she'd agreed that he could take their eldest son on the sunshine trip before he started a new school year.

Rebecca said the pair were booked on a 6.45pm flight and were due to arrive at East Midlands Airport on September 14 2022 at about 10pm.

She even had a taxi waiting for them, but she was left frantic when the pair failed to show up before the penny dropped and she realised Andrew had blocked her number on his phone.

She said: 'At first, I kept trying to call him, kept trying to text him. I thought something had happened. I thought he might have had an accident.

'And then he blocked me, and blocked all my family.'

'It was just a holiday. When he didn't return I was numb, I was worried, I was scared and I was heartbroken.'

Rebecca said she had kept trying to reach Andrew and when that failed, she reported him and her son as missing to UK police on September 22 2022.

The distressed mum went on to create posters and shared them on social media in the hope that someone would see Jayden's face and identify his whereabouts.

Rebecca flew out to Portugal on January 22 last year, in the hope of finding Jayden before reporting them both as missing to local authorities six days later.

She said local police had searched the farm resort where Andrew was spotted three times, but none of these had tuned up any new clues.

She said: 'It was a holiday for him - it was meant to be a ten-day holiday. He organised it. At the time, I didn't suspect anything. But now I feel like he planned it all along.”